“We’re going to go right at OPEC. They can no longer be a cartel, a monopoly that get together once every couple of months [and] decide how much oil they’re going to produce and what price they’re going to put it at. That’s not a market, that’s a monopoly.”

–Hillary Clinton in North Carolina

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OK, so let me get this straight. OPEC has most of the world’s oil. Western civilization NEEDS this oil lest its economy crashes to a grinding halt. They are the masters, we are the slaves. Since when do slaves dictate terms to their masters?

What are we going to do–tell them we don’t need their oil anymore? That we’re going to get it from somewhere else? That we’re going to invade their countries and divert their pipelines? Are we going to nuke them?

Please, Hillary–tell me how we’re going to “go right at OPEC.”

The problem isn’t OPEC. The problem is us. They didn’t ask us to become dependent on their product, we did that all by ourselves. Every time we load up our huge SUV’s getting 10 miles to the gallon, live in the exurbs and commute two hours to work each way, hop in the car to go to the store that’s just around the corner, and sit in traffic choking on our own fumes, we’re causing the problem. OPEC is only too happy to feed an addiction of our own making.

So now we complain when gas prices are sky high (and going much higher)–and threaten to go after our masters? Please.

There’s only one thing we could do practically to OPEC–pressure them to tell the truth about their oil reserves. There are reasons why prices are going sky-high and OPEC is mysteriously declining to take advantage of that windfall. Some people believe that’s because they can’t–because they have reached the limits of their production. Oil reserves are akin to a state secret in places like Saudi Arabia, and we have nothing to go on except their claims of what remains on the ground. So…what if they’re lying? What if peak oil really has come and gone and they’re trying their best to hide it with excuses about why they don’t “want to” further increase production? It is criminal to run our oil-based economy on mere promises of more oil without being damn sure of what’s left.

But that’s about all we can do. Other than that, Hillary should look voters in the eye and tell them that we’re the cause of the problem, and that therefore we need to find the solution on our own. We need to tighten our energy belts while we create a solution. There are a lot of very promising technological advances going on out there right now in energy production–from algal production of biofuel, to designer bacteria that could break down switchgrass into ethanol, to the making of inexpensive solar panels.

All of these things have the potential to break our oil addiction and allow us to give the Saudis the finger once and for all, and in less time than we think. But….it requires a huge and concerted effort to change how energy is made and distributed in this country.

We need a Manhattan Project of energy–one that will incidentally create a lot of jobs while breaking our addiction. It would be money so much better spent than continuing to pour it into the black hole of Iraq (we would already be energy independent if we’d used the nearly $1 trillion for energy development instead of throwing it away in Iraq.)

If Brazil could become energy independent on sugar-based ethanol, we can do the same with our uniquely American technology and wealth. We need politicians with the backbone to give Americans the non-sugar coated truth (including the problem of diminishing oil supply worldwide) and commit us to fundamentally changing how we live and consume energy.

That’s what we need, instead of some idiotic platitudes about “going after OPEC.”

Tags: alternative-energy, hillary-clinton, petroleum